1408
Dir. Mikael Håfström
Premiered June 12, 2007
Stephen King has had a rough time of it. While King has never been pleased with even the best film adaptations of his work– including one he directed– it’s fair to say that they’re very hit-and-miss. Bad Stephen King movies not only cheap out on effects and direction, but highlight the author’s most tired tropes: Maine, bullies, alcoholics, fundamentalists, non-explanation explanations, you know the list.
1408 has none of those trademarks, but it does star John Cusack, who at the time was in the midst of a fourteen–year hiatus from respectability, and led me to believe that the movie wouldn’t be any good. But it was well-received and remains much-liked by movie buffs and King fans, so it seemed worth a go.
Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a once-promising author who has turned to writing trashy paperbacks about haunted places since the death of his young daughter– though he himself doesn’t believe in ghosts. One day, Enslin receives a mysterious postcard informing him about the most haunted place of all– Room 1408, on the 14th (read: 13th) floor of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, where 56 people have died in the near-century since it opened, and even hotel staff fear to enter. Against the protests of the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson), Enslin checks in for one night to see if it lives up to the legend.
At first, everything seems normal. It’s a little hot, maybe. Then the window closes on Enslin’s hand, then the radio plays “We’ve Only Just Begun” by the Carpenters, and it appears as if the room has been refreshed as his back has been turned. Unfortunately, the film takes it up to eleven way too fast, as the clock begins to count down, the windows disappear, and the room begins to unleash all kinds of inexplicable hell.
This sudden escalation is scary at first, but quickly becomes tiresome as the film has nowhere to go. It was based on a short story and you can tell. 1408 is better than you’d expect based on John Cusack’s involvement at the time, but only slightly better than King’s lesser adaptations.
Additional Notes
Samuel L. Jackson gets second-billing, which makes sense, though he’s barely in the film as Cusack spends most of it alone. Jackson makes the most of his limited screentime however, bringing a suave new dimension to his classic badass persona in a way I haven’t seen in anything else.
Yet again, John Cusack gets caught in the rain. Twice in fact: showing up to a backwoods hotel in the movie’s first scene, then getting sprayed by manic fire sprinklers in the titular room. And in case you forgot he’s from Chicago, he brought a White Sox cap.
How Did It Do?
The world at large enjoyed 1408 far more than I did: it grossed $132 million against a $25 million budget and earned a 79% “Certified Fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes. The critical consensus at the time expressed great admiration for Cusack’s ability to elevate the material, as well as the movie’s almost willful defiance of horror trends (this was the midst of the “torture porn” epidemic). I’m no fan of rewarding a movie from what it isn’t, but plenty of people since have highlighted the movies imaginative use of setting, so it seems to have stood the test of time for people other than me.
Next Time: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
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